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NITED I STATES PATENT Fries.

THOMAS D. FITZSIMMQXS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ROBERT WV. VI-TEAM, OF SAME PLACE.

PROCESS OF PREPARING CANVAS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters PatentlNo. 301,706, dated July 8, 1884.

Application filed February 20, 1884. (No specimens.)

' cess of Preparing Canvas for Photographing upon the canvas, thus insuring a correct like-- and for Photographing upon Canvas and other Materials, and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art'to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to a method or process of photographing directly upon canvas, and thus enabling an artist of ordinary ability, at a moderate cost, and with ease and certainty, to produce an oil portrait or painting that will be a correct likeness of the original,and equal, if not superior, to one produced wholly by hand, as has heretofore been considered necessary in this class of work. lVith my improved process the picture can first be photographed ness or copy to beginwith, after which the artist has only to fill in the colors and work out the necessary details.

To photograph the picture upon canvas, it is necessary, first, to make a negative in the usual way. To prepare the canvas, after it has been mounted on the proper-sized frame,

. it is first given a thin coat of white paint mixed with magilp.

This is allowed to dry thoroughly, when a second coat of the same material is added, care being taken to paint the edges of the canvas well up on the sides or edges of the frame. The magilp,being mixed with the white paint, produces a smooth even surfacethat is not liable to crack. It also serves to protect the fiber of the canvas from injury,when at a later stage in the process it is v subjected to a bath of nitrate-of-silver solution. After the canvas has been thus painted and become thoroughly dry, the surface of the paint is coated with collodion in the same manused by photographers. It is allowed to remain in this bath until the prepared surface assumes a milky appearance, and free from any grease or greasy look. It can then be taken out, and the canvas is ready to receive the impression. An ordinary glass negative of the picture to be transferred is then placed in the back part of the camera, said camera being placed in front of a window, and the room darkened, so that the lens of the camera will receive no light except as it is admitted through said window and passes through the negative in the back part of the camera. The canvas, prepared as hereinbefore de scribed, is now placed in front the camera in the proper position and allowed to remain from one to five minutes, according to the light. The size of the picture is regulated,in the usual way, by being placed nearer or removed farther from the camera. After the canvas has been exposed a sufficient time to receive the proper impression, it is removed and developed in the same manner as an ordinary glass negative for a photograph. This method may be applied to paintings other than portraits, and they may be transferred upon any material that can be coated in the manner described.

Clear varnish may be used in place of the magilp for mixing with the white paint, but the surface made with the paint and varnish is liable to crack, and the result is not so satisfactory as when magilp is used.

I am aware that a paste has'been known for covering canvas preparatory to photographing thereon, consisting of virgin wax or spermaceti and resin dissolved in essence of lavender and mixed with carbonate or" lead, but

this paste is not of a character to receive the photograph, and has to be covered with alayer of wax, mixed with a small proportion of the above-described paste, which waxy layer is sensitized to receive the picture. This process of preparing the canvas is, however, open to the objection that it does not afford a durable surface, as after the picture is placed upon it it must be subjected to heat in order to commingle the materials and fix the said picture. This necessarily, to a great extent, blurs and destroys the proof or picture, and the coating for the canvas being of such a character as to be affected by heat would render the picture placed upon it very unstable and liable to become destroyed. In my process the paint being of the ordinary character, and mixed with magilp or varnish, forms a smooth even surface, very hard and tenacious, thereby rendering it capable of resisting the action of any ordinary temperature, and entirely free from cracks and blisters.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is- 1. The herein described process of preparing canvas and similar material, so that a photograph may be taken thereon, consisting of coating the surface of the canvas with ordinary paint mixed with niagilp, varnish, or a similar material, and afterward covering the painted surface with collodion, and submitting the prepared surface 'to a bath of nitrate-ofsilver solution, substantially as shown and de scribed.

2. The herein-described process of photothe aforesaid negative, substantially as de-- scribed.

In testimony whereof I affix my signaturo'in presence of two witnesses.

THOMAS D. FITZSIMMONS.

XVitnesses: THOMAS D. MowLns, G. STROBEL SULLIVAN. 

